


What Kind of Magic? Reimagined from  The Magicians 5.6

by knightofthelab



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:55:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27597856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightofthelab/pseuds/knightofthelab
Summary: Q, ALIVE AND WHOLE, IS AT THE DOOR INSTEAD OF CHARLTON
Relationships: Margo Hanson & Josh Hoberman, Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh, William "Penny" Adiyodi & Kady Orloff-Diaz & Julia Wicker
Comments: 24
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

Eliot walks toward the creepy door to what he is sure is his worst nightmare. Again. Josh is right, though. Intrepid heroes must always face their fears for some reason. Since Quentin died saving him, Eliot has read the Fillory books twice AND finished all of Harry Potter. (Yes, he was quite drunk most of the time he was reading, but he secretly loves all the books because they make him feel close to Q—like he’s there.) 

He thinks Quentin was a Gryffindor—brave and gallant because he so desperately wanted to be. Eliot is a Hufflepuff and he would rather not right now, but he carefully opens the door anyway. There is a lot annoying fog, way too much light, some shadows, a moment for dramatic pause, and something that looks remarkably like a…Q… walks through it.

“HEY, Eliot! Hey.”

El is disoriented, barely breathing. It can’t be real. Now he is the one hallucinating and this is just fucking great. Really? What did he take this strong?? He doesn’t remember anything recently, but it was too much. Eliot is tired. He is done. He wants to go home, wherever the hell that is. He’s sure being dead or facing The Monster would be better than this. The hallucination has now gone into full trademark Q babbling. Eliot must have been paying more attention all those years than he thought. Mr. beautiful, extremely vivid hallucinations says:

“God! I thought you’d never let me out! I painted a heart for you and you just yelled! Your letter came to me in the stupid underworld so I couldn’t do a damn thing about it, obviously! What the hell, man! You write all this stuff about you’re sorry and you love me so much and I’m good and true and beautiful and weirdly hot….and what I should’ve done to survive, eventually. But then you don’t even try to send it right! I thought you gave up on me! Hey, El, hey! Are you ok?? It’s ok. I’m here. It’s me. I promise. I’m here now. I made it back to you. I’m not going anywhere.” 

Eliot isn’t sure. Something in him wants to believe this nonsense now and just live in it forever. He’d started to forget sometimes how much he’d loved that voice, the sweet mouth, the messy, floppy hair, only half in its holder. He remembers now that there’d be these ugly thick Fillorian rubber bands and ribbons all over their little house. Q could never find them when he wanted them. “No,” Eliot thinks, “Focus.” This could be a spell or something. Or another moon brain side effect. One of those fake paradises you are supposed to be mentally strong enough to get out of. He doesn’t want to though. He isn’t strong enough. Not now. The time loop shit and the fucking moon and everything in the universe can wait a little while. Purely out of curiosity, Eliot asks the weirdly hot illusion of the love of his whole dysfunctional life,

“So, what kind of magic are you?”

“Uh...I’m Quentin…Coldwater…Your uh…friend? Wait…but I LOVE you, like, serious romantic love’…yeah… more than anyone in the universe and I’ve loved other people a lot … I love Alice. I always will…and Ariel…I can remember I loved her too…I did… but I really, really love you and I want to be with you for as long as I can. 100 years or 1,000! Alice might know that. I kind of told her. I don’t know. We talked a lot. She knows I think you’re hot as hell, too. I mean, OBVIOUSLY…you and I did have sex…a lot.... maybe. I really fucking hope we did. I might have imagined some of it. I am so, so bisexual. And in love with you. Anyway… we were sort of married, right? We had a son, remember? Teddy.”  
\---  
Eliot has lost whatever powers of speech he momentarily had. His mouth falls slightly open. He’s never heard Quentin talk quite like this, even in his dreams or his fragmented, beautiful memories of their life together. Words flow through his brain on repeat. “Love… want…more than anyone…hot as hell…sex… fucking…bisexual.” OK. Eliot can live with that. Why hasn’t he thought more about this before? He knows, in a way, but somehow, he never considered the word bisexual with Quentin. He’s always thought of Q’s sexuality as “somewhat fluid,” especially with Eliot as the “only choice.” But he was never really the only option at any point, was he? His idiotic amount of love for this man made him afraid to ask before. Or maybe he has asked at least once in 50 years, but he can’t remember that part.  
Damn. Everything makes more sense now. 

Eliot also hopes there was a lot of sex. And then are more gorgeous words that Quentin has said. “Married.” “Teddy.” Their son. Their beautiful boy. So that’s how Q thinks about it, too.  
No, wait. Eliot shakes his head to rid himself of these evil thoughts, memories, feelings. This isn’t Q. Q is dead.

Currently the hallucination/spell of Quentin is just uselessly staring into Eliot’s eyes, as if he’s looking for something there. “You…do…love me…right? I mean I thought the letter was clear…but you didn’t find someone…better, while I was gone? 

Eliot smiles at this. Better? Ha. How could anyone be better than a hallucination/evil paradise version of Quentin Coldwater? So, he says, all arch and ironic,  
“I don’t think that’s possible, Quentin, darling, considering you are some sort of figment of my fabulous imagination.”

Quentin grins. It’s like the sun at Brakebills compared to the winter cold of Indiana or Manhattan, like dawn passing over his face. Everything dark and awful just fades away for a moment. He’s found what he’s looking for and he knows what to do now.

He takes the four steps that both men have apparently been using for protection. He grabs Eliot, by the neck, of course, the way Eliot himself does to Q when he just can’t take it anymore. Quentin kisses Eliot like he’s never kissed Eliot before. Eliot’s mouth is air and water, tacos, and wine—all the things he’s missed about being alive for so long. It’s so familiar but it’s also never been this way. So confident, strong, sure. Even more than that, El’s crazy passionate kiss is like…well…magic. It’s like going home, like Fillory itself. Except right now, just for these small moments, he can’t even imagine being disappointed. 

And Eliot? He’s not hallucinating. He’s kissed the Quentin of his mind before, a million times, maybe more. This is not that. This is good and true and corporeal. Somehow, after all this heartbreak, loneliness, and pure torture, he is in real paradise, but he is alive for sure. 

His very own depressed super-nerd, his very favorite king, the high king of his fucking ridiculous heart, has refused to follow the dumb ass laws of Jane Chatwin’s universe. His Q has come back to him. Come back and kissed him like he, Eliot, is the sexiest, most precious thing on earth. 

Quentin must know there are plenty of…decent looking...women around. But he says he wants Eliot. He says he loves Eliot more than anyone! No one, besides Margo, obviously, has ever said that to him. No one else has ever come close.  
\---  
After they have kissed, laughed, cried, held each other—had the best short-lived sex of Eliot’s fabulous life—and just stared at each other for longer than any half decent writer would allow, Eliot finally remembers rest of the world. Oh yeah, they should save it, but they can do that together. He has no doubt now.

“OK. So…we kind of broke the moon. And I’m stuck in a goddamn time loop. It is so annoying. And whatever we do, you cannot let me fall asleep. Just in case. We need to stop the current apocalypse.”  
Q smirks and nods, stretching slightly to planting a lingering, sweet kiss on Eliot’s forehead. 

“I know. Zelda and the library people told us all about it. it’s the reason they let us go, in the end." 

Eliot pulls away. “Quentin, sweetheart, sunshine, light of my entire life, how the fuck did you get here? And who is us?"

“Fucking Penny 40,” Q sighs, blushing and grinning a little, mostly from El’s string of brand-new endearments. “He’s supposed to be here any minute now. He told me I had to call out for you in a creepy whisper and use red paint. Dick.”


	2. Chapter 2

As if Quentin speaking his name and calling him a dick has summoned him from the Neitherlands, Penny 40 comes crashing through that same creepy door, which is in the big, open room Quentin and Eliot have now left behind. It’s about a minute before he busts in on them sitting on the most uncomfortable love seat in the place. It’s covered in plastic and ugly, country blue flowers. It doesn’t look like something either Marina or Kady would’ve ever chosen. Some of the stuffing is coming out and someone has obviously not bothered to get rid of it. It is in no/ way a bed. Eliot made sure of that.

El knows he can technically sleep now. There’s no way he could’ve survived all these time loops without sleep. The real reason he didn’t want a bedroom is that if they had one, he would’ve really forgotten everything else. If they had gone through the halls to the bedrooms, they surely would’ve had to deal with Other People named Alice or Julia. Worst of all, if Eliot had fallen asleep in Quentin Coldwater’s arms—here, now, in this timeline—he might have woken to find his floppy haired best friend, his most awkward fantasy lover, gone. He might’ve have woken up to find it was a cruel dream after all. Q’s eyes laughing through kisses and tears. The beating of his heart. The love. The want. All of it could disappear in a second and why the hell wouldn’t it? No…they hadn’t needed a bedroom yet. Come to think of it, this must be used as a storage room. Eliot’s not wearing a shirt, or vest, and Quentin is barely wearing pants. Their hair and remaining clothes are completely disheveled.

“I see you two non-heterosexual idiots have figured out you’re in love with each other.” Penny says, rolling his eyes, “We have what, nine and a half hours to save the world before we die, again, and the library re-kidnaps all our asses. Let’s go. Quentin, the fucking Jonas Brothers?? Are you serious? I should have left you in the underworld.”

“Fine, DICK,” El mutters, unable to resist chuckling and throwing a brilliant smile at Q, who is now seriously blushing.

Eliot can’t remember the last time he felt this much pure joy without any assistance from substances. He can barely care about the moon, the library, the door, or anyone else at all. Except Margo. He picks up his shirt from the floor and puts it on but doesn’t even bother with all the buttons. The vest and tie stay where he left them. It almost feels like their own little room of requirement. Fuck, maybe that’s exactly what is. Who knows? JK Rowling could be an extremely misguided hedge witch.  
  
“OK, Penny, where are we going?” says Eliot in his normal, polite, kingly voice.

“Fisher beach. Apparently, Margo figured out we have to talk to some whales.”

Q pauses in his epic efforts to put on his sweatshirt and tame his hair. His face lights up....if it ever calmed down to begin with. “You didn’t tell me that part,” he says, “Awesome!” 

It takes all of all of Eliot’s strength not to grab this real, whole, living Q again right there. He’d like to keep him in this weird room to himself forever, or until the moon falls on their heads… and naked bodies.

Instead, Eliot, Quentin and Penny 40 agree that further reunions can wait a bit longer. Q protests a little. He wants to see the others badly. He’s already being rude as hell and he knows it, but he does want to take his time and to make sure none of them die again.

Also, Alice might, ok will, be seriously pissed whatever she knows, and he hates that thought. He loves Alice. He loves her smile, which she only gave to him if he earned it. He loves her soft, bright blonde hair, her intense, blue-gray eyes, her rare humor, and the way she looks so cute either with or without her glasses. He loves her passion for books, bacon, ice cream sundaes with gummy bears, and two-person, private sex. Most of all, he loves what an amazing, brilliant magician she is. Nothing, not even asshole boyfriends like him, can stop Alice from getting what she wants. She’s always learning and growing and knowing new things and yet she still somehow loves Quentin.

Even after all they had been through, she still chose to open her heart to him. At the time all he knew for sure was that Eliot had done the opposite once. How could he not want Alice in his life? How could he not want to be with someone so beautiful and smart, someone who accepted and wanted him? She was still his first real love, his Vix. He’d never forget any of the moments they spent together, human or fox, even the worst ones. He does not want to hurt her. He never did. He hates hurting her.

He just loves Eliot SO MUCH… and that letter he wasn’t even supposed to get…and he knows Eliot NEEDED to be kissed by him. A lot. And some more. He was just standing there, and he was so…ELIOT. Why is he so stupid about this damn boy? For the first time since Eliot finally opened the damn door, Q feels anxiety and dread start to build inside him. 

But then Quentin looks at the damn boy and smiles involuntarily. El involuntarily returns the smile to him. Penny involuntarily rolls his eyes again. They climb awkwardly out of a window and go on their way to talk to the whales.


	3. Chapter 3

Julia, Alice, and Margo walk in just behind them. Now that Penny has come through, the door has disappeared, but the women can still hear, belatedly. “OK, I SWEAR THERE WERE PEOPLE TALKING IN HERE.” Julia says “DAMN, I THOGHT I HEARD Q’S VOICE.”

“I did, too,” says Margo, “and there was this big fucking crash earlier. What the fuck?” They can all feel an extra magical quality as soon as they enter. It’s like a breath of fresh air in Fillory or on Christmas eve as little girls. They don’t say anything because they can’t explain it. There’s a sense of peace and excitement at the same time, like this is where they’re supposed to be. 

They take in the room, the ugly love seat falling apart, the boxes, the bookshelves, the random magical odds and ends, the open window letting in the noise of the pre-apocalyptic world outside. Some middle-aged white preacher in jeans and an open plaid shirt is loudly droning on about being selected, lesbians on The Bachelor, and Jesus in his heart.

“Yeah,” Margo yells, just loud enough for him to hear, “Jesus selected you to shut the fuck up!”

Julia is rummaging through the stuff in the boxes to see what useful magical objects she can find. She starts finding tons of old, cool stuff, feeling drawn to everything around her. In the back of her mind she still knows there was something going on in here earlier. Alice is reading all the book titles to see if she can find anything useful there. She’s never seen this room before and it looks like a disaster, but at least it has plenty of books. 

She sees kid’s books, historical magic volumes, modern takes on the moon's power , classic women’s literature, Brakebills textbooks, and old books of poetry. She flips through a few she remembers and loves. There are sets of Harry Potter and Fillory books, old covers and new, illustrated, and original. When she’s done, she finally starts to notice the clothing items on the floor. Evidence of human activity. 

“Margo,” she says, holding up the vest and tie, “Aren’t these Eliot’s?”

“Yeah,” Margo says, glancing over from the oddly comfortable window seat, still making fun of people on the street, “Why?” 

A strange, horrible, sickening, yet still magnificent suspicion begins to build in Alice’s mind. She, Julia, and Margo can’t have imagined the same voice at the same time.

And then Alice sees something she never thought she would see again: a pair of Fillory and Further boxer shorts lying on the floor.  
\---

Alice has no idea how it’s possible, but she knows without a doubt that Quentin Coldwater, her apparent ex-boyfriend, the smartest, nerdiest, most beautiful, most loving, most bisexual IDIOT BASTARD she’s ever met is alive. She’s so viscerally angry that she feels like she might turn into a Niffin again, just from the raw power of her own rage. But in the next moment she’s so damn happy she can’t help but laugh.  
Then she’s more human than ever and she feels her heart break AGAIN over these same dumb boys. If it were even possible for hearts to break over this shit.

Something in her had broken when she found Quentin naked in bed with Eliot’s arm around his waist. 

Margo was there, and beautiful, and fascinating. But she had ended up lying next to Eliot, not Quentin. Even then, Alice knew it was more than just stupidity or an ordinary high. It was magic but it was also pure, true emotion, attraction. At least Margo isn’t involved currently. Alice might throw up. She goes back to the rage and starts laughing again. 

And then suddenly, Alice remembers another time she laughed, so vividly she can feel what she felt in those moments. She had laughed with Eliot, up on the mountain of ghosts, where they had brought a piece of Q’s soul to be restored to him in the underworld. She had known then that they both carried and made up pieces of Q’s soul forever. She had been grateful for the understanding, the beauty of Quentin’s life, the depths of love they both held for him. The laughter had felt so pure, such a relief. Yes, Alice Quinn had loved Eliot Waugh on that mountain and ever since. Now, however, she could also kill him. 

In her mind’s eye, she sees Eliot’s handsome face go from laughing to crying. She sees the look in Q’s eyes when she first kissed him at Brakebills South. She remembers running her fingers through his hair. Now she does want to scream at him to love only her. But she also remembers watching him die. And he’s alive. Put back together the way he fixed that stupid coffee mug. Sometimes, it feels like he can fix her heart. She feels everything at once.

It’s too much. Alice could really use some more of that incredible Lorian Bumble Wine RIGHT NOW. She can’t form words or go anywhere, so she sits down on the floor, completely unaware of the other women in the room. Julia and Margo have noticed something seriously wrong with Alice at this point, what with all the crazy laughter and retching and endless variety of facial expressions. But they also know from experience not to mess with her. Or with any woman as powerful and emotional as the three of them can be.  
After a few more minutes of emotion, logic, and complete fucking lack of logic swirling in Alice’s Ravenclaw brain, Julia tentatively steps over to her and touches her arm. “Alice, honey, what’s wrong?” 

“Oh, nothing,” she says sarcastically, “My brain just completely broke. And Quentin is alive.”

“How? What? How?” says Julia. 

“Three excellent questions!” says Margo  
\---

“I don’t understand it, MARGO!” Alice says, standing up as if preparing to give a lecture, “But every single person in this room heard his voice at the same time! And those are his CUSTOM boxer shorts. He had them made. That means there is one pair in the entire universe with that font and that image placed just there in that exact size and color. There’s a little Q on the front and on the back, they say, ‘Royalty, bitches!’ He…was wearing these the day he died. There was no body. Nothing to bury, remember? It’s why we had the stupid bonfire. And yet here these things are. Whole. He’s got to be somewhere.” 

Alice reluctantly holds the underwear up for the others to see. Margo laughs dramatically but genuinely, as if the boxers exist for her entertainment. She can’t stop laughing. The fucking Fillory boxer shorts are a new miraculous discovery. Not to mention weird but incontrovertible proof of her best-super-nerd-friend’s life. And once she puts it together, of El’s “true happiness.” Julia just stares. She’s also a Ravenclaw. She runs on logic and knowledge, even in a very magical world. Like Alice, something in her completely shattered the moment she knew Q had died. It takes her a minute.

Eventually, Julia walks up to Alice, reaches out to touch the underwear, thinks better of it and sits down on the floor, where Alice joins her again. 

Margo has only intermittently stopped laughing. She can’t breathe. She might die. She is about to roll on the floor with them laughing. So, for maybe the first time without being extremely drunk or high, Margo falls off the window seat and does it. And eventually the other women laugh too. First Julia, then Alice, until it is full on hilarity and exuberance in the ridiculous room that came out of nowhere.

They even find a bottle of old Fillorian perfume and spray it all over each other like they are twelve. Permanence, it says. Nobody knows where it came from, but they don’t care. They feel very royal and French, or Fillorian in Julia’s case. Margo unearths some glasses and an old bottle of…Lorian Bumble Wine… in one of the boxes. 

They toast to His Royal Highness, King Quentin the Moderately Socially Maladjusted, to Eliot’s stupid face, and to each other. Whatever happens now, and even though Alice is still pissed, they are living in a world that has a Q in it. They are powerful magicians and they can be good friends. They laugh and laugh until they remember the moon is broken and they need to stop an apocalypse again. Julia calls Kady for an update on the plan and to keep them in line.


	4. Chapter 4

Why is there no one here?” Quentin asks, as he, Eliot, and Penny 40 walk along the beach. His hands are shoved in his pockets and his hair blows aggravatingly in the wind, but something in his eyes still gives away overwhelming joy at being alive again.

“I think it’s a cancel your beach trip kind of day, Q” Eliot says with a smirk, “The world is about to end after all.” 

He feels blown about too, in more ways than one, but for once, only a few of them are uncomfortable. He says the letter Q like art, the auditory equivalent of his calligraphy. He says it like something unbelievably sexy and miraculous at the same time, because to him, that’s what Q is.

“Yeah I know that, but my point is, if you were a muggle and you didn’t have to save the world every time it ends, wouldn’t you want to spend your last day hanging out at the beach reading or something, just looking out at the water?”

Eliot shrugs, but all the exhaustion in his face and voice is long gone, accidentally forgotten, like his vest and tie. “I’d rather look at you.” 

Q stops walking and grins at Eliot as if it takes everything he has. His eyes laugh, but he says nothing yet. El is suddenly flustered, blushing just a little himself. He knows all the pick-up lines usually, but he didn’t even mean it that way. He was just answering the question.

“So, I’m that hot, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever been the hot guy before. I need a kiss to confirm.” Q teases, after a moment of deliciously obvious lovers’ staring.

God damnit, Eliot vaguely knows that Penny is there, and they are supposed to be doing something about fucking whales, but he kisses Quentin anyway. He offers a quick but slightly too thorough peck.

He cannot help himself. What is the point of the world right now if it isn’t kissing Quentin Coldwater, alive and wanting kisses? A strange thought, a song, floats into Eliot’s mind like a familiar incantation from a foreign language.:

“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time/Any fool can do it/There ain’t nothin’ to it.” 

One more kiss won’t hurt anyone. 

And Q can be a hero in a minute. Right now, he doesn’t mind using his new life to say dumb Gryffindor stuff and kiss Eliot Waugh. For that matter maybe El won’t mind holding his hand either.  
\---  
Penny’s pretty much aggravated to death. He could die right here. He hasn’t felt this way in a long time. Evidently, he’s in charge of this whole world saving operation while these idiot lovebirds have a picnic. If they don’t get this shit right, he may never even see Kady or another living woman ever again. Why couldn’t Zelda have given them a door that led directly to Kady? If Kady even wanted him after all this time. That’s the real reason why Penny has not yet bothered to interrupt Quentin and Eliot’s unbelievably dumb ass conversation. He was an idiot in love once too.

His time as librarian has made him much more mature and calmer about things. He would never admit it, but deep down, he also feels happy and relieved for his friends. He had watched both of their faces at Quentin’s funeral and that’s not something anyone could forget. The truth is through, he is still an idiot in love, and he would like to do something about it. Sometimes Penny feels so far beyond the living he has no idea what life would be like, but who could refuse a chance to find out?

During the funeral, he had been completely absorbed in his role as a guide for Q, 100% calm, humor and wisdom, everything the little nerd had needed. Yet afterwards, he absolutely could not get the feeling of fresh spring air, Kady Orloff Diaz’s face, or even Quentin Coldwater’s helpless bisexual tears out of his mind. So, very slowly, Penny Adiyodi of timeline 40 began to consider his options for getting their lives back.

Penny runs his fingers through his hair and loosens his tie to bring himself back to the present, to life, to this world he needs to save. When he looks down, he sees something that looks like phone wire and pulls on it.

“Hey, MORONS,” he yells at the morons who are almost up to their knees and playing in the fucking water, “I found lifeguard station 17! The one Margo went to!”   
\---  
Quentin looks at Eliot, whose hands are in the water about to splash him again. He lets it happen and laughs as drops the of the Long Island Sound hit his face. The water tastes refreshing in his mouth and it feels so damn good to laugh, to hear Eliot, his Eliot, finally laughing back. He had fought so hard, sometimes against the others—against the entire universe—just so he could he hear that laugh again. And only when he had to, he’d been glad give his life just for Eliot’s. Not to say he wouldn’t have made the same choice for Alice, Julia or even Margo. Saving the whole world was just kind of a big bonus.

A bonus about which Penny 40 is unfortunately yelling. Quentin’s sudden visions of slippery wet kisses and horse play will have to be temporally postponed. But not quite yet. He gets one more two-handed splash in so that Eliot’s shirt and the little tendrils of his hair are wet now. Just as the water hits the offended (former) high king, Q says “Oh shit, El, the chaperone is calling. No more splashing. Time to save the world.” He starts running towards Penny and the lifeguard station. 

Eliot has an idea, an awful, wonderful idea. It occurs to him that if still in a damn time loop now, and Quentin is here with him, then he should be able to take Q to the next loop and the next and the next after that. Maybe they can just have an infinite unbridled hedonistic love fest. At the very least, they should have a few more minutes. These mysterious whales would somehow still be there waiting. 

So, Eliot runs up behind his love and grabs him, dragging him back further into the water than before. Q kicks and screams and curses like he’s supposed to, but never says no or stop. He loves it. He’s never had an experience like this in real life as a human. Not in this timeline anyway. Eliot’s arms hold him captive, but he can’t remember ever feeling so free. 

At the same time, Eliot suddenly has an incredibly vivid memory of playing like this with his mother and older brothers. It must have been two or even three lifetimes ago:

\---  
They were at some church picnic in the late spring when the lack of a chill in the air felt like a drug and the hours just before sunset put a spell on the world.

Danny held Eliot’s front and Isaac held his legs as they tossed him into a lake. 8-year-old Eliot had just washed his hair and put something in it. He didn’t really feel like messing it up. Still, he loved the fact that his brothers were paying him any attention whatsoever, so he went along with it. He giggled, squirmed and fake-protested all the way.

“Guys! My hair! My hair! I just did it!” 

Their mother scolded the ten-year-old identical twin boys   
playfully “Don’t you ever mess up your brother’s hair, now! You’re both going to pay for that! 

She then proceeded to jump in and join the splashing match. 

\---

That’s the second time he’s thought of his mom today. Usually it takes an extremely excessive amount of the wrong substances, loneliness, or something else terrible to make him think of her. That means it’s much more often than he would ever admit to anyone, but still. El shakes his head, blinks and brings himself back to the squirming man he’s currently holding, the one who truly, unconditionally loves him.  
\---  
“Dammit, Eliot!” Quentin sputters, struggling to breathe from laughing, “You know I’m not even wearing any goddamn underwear; I couldn’t find them! This shit is cold! I’m dying here!   
They are fully in the water now and no one would ever guess that they were magicians or kings of a far-away land. They sure enough look like almost fully dressed fools, like giddy little boys in grown men’s bodies.   
Eliot lets go of Quentin, who swims about awkwardly, but soon turns to face him like a magnet. They stare hard into each other’s eye’s as Eliot shakes off the strange melancholy magic of memory. For the first time since he was 13 years old, he feels completely safe in the love surrounding him. He lets every good feeling bubble over onto his face and smiles. Since he’s Eliot, for now, he just says:  
“What a shame you lost those boxers, since they were so sexy, your royal highness! Come at   
me, Coldwater.”

Quentin gets the kind of kiss he has been wanting all his life, all day or at least since Penny showed up. And it’s wet, too! They’ve both politely put their own heads under, as both certainly know being dunked isn’t as fun as it sounds. Q thinks maybe soon they can do the upside-down, extra old-spiderman thing.

Penny, meanwhile, long ago ran out of polite names to call them and sat down in the sand, smiling despite himself. He knows that If Kady were here, and loving him, he would have done the exact same thing. He brought these idiots with him for a reason. Besides, he’s just now had a feeling there’s at least one more time loop to go before they’re done. He does some meditation he learned in the library.   
\---  
“Whoa, Whoa,” says Quentin, “OK El, OK! I mean, wow, I love you! But the whales. There are whales. And…and…water…and Penny, man!” At the word “Penny,” Eliot’s rogue hands and mouth finally, sadly, come to a halt. He gets the point but pretends he doesn’t. “I only see one of those things being a major issue, babe.”

Q’s stomach does another flip at the new word, “babe,’ in Eliot’s voice. He feels like he might have heard it before, long ago, in the other life. He’s not sure. But he also remembers Alice. He remembers her when everything was new and good, and he was happier than he had ever been before. He couldn’t stand to lose either of them again. He laughs nervously.

El pecks Quentin’s lips to ease or solidify whatever Q is feeling. 

“All right, your majesty, let’s get you out of this water and see about these whales, huh?” Q puts his arm around Eliot’s shoulder because he needs the comfort.

Eliot can sense this now as easily as he can see the sky. So, he takes Quentin’s hand, kisses it, and leads him dripping towards the lifeguard station.  
\---  
“Fuck,” says Q, as they reach dry land, “we are soaked, and we look like idiots. OK, hot, royal idiots, at least in your case, but what if the whales don’t want to talk to us? How are they going to talk to us? There can’t be a whale in that tiny lifeguard station. Can there?” His eyes get wide. “What if there’s a whale in the lifeguard station? What do we do?”

Eliot tries extremely hard not to laugh in case this is serious, deep anxiety, but half a smile shows up in his face and voice anyway. “Baby, if there is a whale in there, I will protect you. I promise.”

Q relaxes immediately, instinctually. He totally forgets about the whale in the lifeguard station or, like, any whale, but he’s still a wet idiot. A smiling, blushing wet idiot. 

“Do you know any drying spells?”

“Oh, yeah. Come here. I learned this on fucking patrol in Fillory.”

“Patrol?” Q asks, turning to face El and stepping closer, as if for a touch or a kiss. “What were you patrolling for?” 

“Long fucking story and not a good one. At all.”   
\---

It’s the first time Eliot fully remembers Seb’s existence since he opened the door, bless Josh Hoberman’s soul. He’ll make a point to thank, worship, and officially adopt Josh later. He smiles at the freedom, the fucking miracle of having Quentin AND Quentin’s love back. He thinks of his friend Alice and knows he doesn’t deserve it, but his heart still might break from the joy. He pours all that pain and love, his whole life’s journey, into performing the spell over Q’s precious, adorable head.

After a series of careful movements, Eliot’s hands become like two warm suns and a giant, incredibly powerful hand drier all at once. There’s a huge gush of warm air that almost knocks them both over. 

The spell is so powerful that Quentin can feel the warmth from inside himself as well, like he just walked into a cozy cabin or a library on a snowy day. To Eliot it’s more like, say, a big, comfy sauna with Q and other beautiful men inside. It lasts for at least a few minutes, so they just stand there on the beach with their eyes closed, holding hands, letting the warmth blow around them. They let slowly it fill their bodies and souls, like love itself. 

“Whoa, that was bitchin spell, uh…babe,” Q swallows. 

He wants to try the word because he knows liked hearing it—mostly—but it doesn’t roll off his tongue yet. Eliot doesn’t care. He loves it anyway and always, past Fillory and the moon and the lakes and the oceans.

“Right?! I don’t remember it being quite that awesome when the soldiers did it.” El says, grinning wider than Quentin has ever had the privilege to see in this stupid, dark timeline. Until now. 

Now, Eliot drapes his arm around Q’s shoulders as if to inform the universe, “This nerd is mine. You cannot take him away again.”’  
\---   
Speaking of the universe, Penny Adiyodi, the same one who sat next to Quentin in the testing room that first day, is still there. Q thinks he is still annoying, cool and a little bit hot—even more so after knowing him all this time. He’s sitting by the steps of lifeguard station 17, in a perfect meditation position, floating 3 feet off the ground, having removed his jacket, tie, shoes, and most of his sleeves. He had decided if he was going to sit here and wait for their romcom to unfold, he might as get back the comfortable fashion of the living. 

Penny gets so into meditation that he truly generates what feels like a warm light inside of him. It’s a little like the warmth from Eliot’s drying spell. Today, it reminds him of…his real mom’s Indian cooking, but not a memory, just a feeling. He’s studied different forms of meditation carefully for what would be years on earth, from all the best books and teachers, including other travelers, so he forgets the outside world.

“Um, Penny?” says Q, “Hey, Penny, we’re here. Do you want to go in? I mean I don’t know what exactly is in there, but you seemed pretty excited.”

Penny makes no sound or movement—stone cold nothing. He is a floating, meditating statue of the former hot head traveler.

Eliot snaps his fingers in back and forth in front of Penny’s face. 

“Hey, Jedi Swayze! Earth to Penny 40!” he says, practically yelling, one arm still around Q’s shoulder.

Q giggles. Still no response. Eliot and Quentin both pretend to be annoyed, while in fact still having the time of their lives. Quentin never realized how much or for how long he had wanted that arm to stay, to rest, possessively around his shoulder. Eliot does a loud creepy whisper. 

“Hey, dick, wake up! Let me in!” This is followed by more uncontrollable giggles from Q, but nothing from Penny.

Quentin thinks that if Margo were there, she would’ve yelled at them about the moon and too many damn time loops and someone’s private parts. They would’ve understood her, barely. Quentin also thinks that Margo might have punched Penny in the face. He doesn’t do that, though. Penny did save his life, help him when he died and get them both back here where they belonged, eventually.

It occurs to Quentin that he kind of loves Penny now, as a friend. So, he reluctantly steps out from Eliot’s arm and tries a friendly slap instead. It turns out to be a bit harder than he meant. Penny’s eyes fly open and he crashes, startled, down to the sand.

“OOPS,” Q mumbles with delighted embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“You. Mother. Fucker,” Penny says, for the first time in a long time. 

Oh, he feels anger, a white-hot jolt of it. No one asked for his consent to be slapped out of his peaceful place by a hobbit loving nerd. 

At the same time, it feels so good use his favorite swears, to be alive, to insult his fellow living friend while barefoot and bare-armed on a beach. As he gets up and dusts himself off, he almost smiles, and then he does, damn it. 

“You did not have to slap me out of my meditative state, Coldwater.” 

“Maybe not,” says Q, smiling back, “but it was awesome!”

“Possibly, it was a little badass,” Penny muses, “but don’t ever do that again. Got it?” 

“Yes, sir.”  
\---   
And so, the three grown, living, corporeal men finally walk up the steps to lifeguard station 17 and literally cram themselves inside. El comes in first, then Q, then Penny. Quentin feels tiny, awkward, and squished by two large men…but it’s not…terrible.

“Well,” he says, “at least there’s not a whale in here too.”

“Yes, thank you so much for that essential perspective Quentin, as always,” Penny remarks with calm sarcasm. “So, somehow, the whales are on this dinosaur TV. That’s fucking ridiculous.”

Eliot chuckles contentedly, rolls his eyes and steals a happy, hungry glance at Q beside him.  
To him every word out of Quentin Coldwater’s mouth, every breath he breathes, every touch he offers or allows, is essential. He can’t exactly explain why, but he knows it’s been that way since he read the name on the card, and the boy with the confused puppy face said, “Uh huh.” 

He blinks and shakes his head again, not to forget or even out of frustration, but to focus on the apocalypse at hand. Otherwise he’ll keep thinking about Quentin’s mouth until he kisses it  
.  
Right now, with Eliot looking like that, Q has even less concept of personal space than before, and strangely less anxiety. He excitedly reaches over his beautiful El to the knob on the ancient TV in front of them, flipping the old dial from Off to Whales. “Let’s just see what happens,” he says.  
\---  
A slightly garbled, low definition image of grey colored whales swimming in blue water appears on the screen. A strange, distant voice sounding like several different voices, at least a male and a female in unison, says sternly, “What is the purpose of this distraction?” 

Quentin has absolutely no clue what to say. He stammers and looks to Eliot, but not out of fear or cowardice. His mouth turns up and his eyes sparkle, like when he used to talk of Fillory. 

He’s aware that until now he has been thinking mostly of kisses to mend Eliot, of breath, life, love, even food. They stopped for Mexican on the way here at his request. Penny obviously drove---A light blue 1952 Chevy convertible of Zelda’s. 

Now that Q’s heart, lungs, and stomach are full, the thrill of the quest overwhelms him again. He wants to watch this, to take it all in.

“With whom are we speaking,” says Eliot regally. He’s wearing no vest, no tie, his shirt half unbuttoned, with a tiny, proud smile now that the whales can probably sense but not see. Q sees it of course. 

From Penny’s perspective the whales’ response sounds roughly like this:

“We are the whales. All of them. We command you peasant magicians to fix your own damn moon, which you broke, while we continue to draw a lot of magic symbol shit on the ocean floor. We do this constantly to stop the giant ass squid—The Kraken, SERIOUSLY? —from eating all your dumb faces, but it happens anyway because the broken moon colliding with the earth obliterates the magic symbols, or sigils. Every time the giant squid comes out, time goes back twelve hours so dumb humans can stop it, theoretically. But you broke the moon, so it keeps happening indefinitely. This is in no way our responsibility as whales. You can all die forever.”   
Penny’s face looks appropriately befuddled and offended. He didn’t break the moon, thank you very much. Fucking whales.

Quentin thinks Eliot’s part of the conversation was a masterpiece of diplomacy from a true and destined king… but basically, they’re the wrong kind of screwed. Shit. He doesn’t want to die again. There’s no way he’s losing Eliot and all his friends again, forever. Friends…it’s probably time for him to say hello to the rest of them. Or goodbye? No, they’re all going to fix this, together. The way it should be. 

First, Penny says that since no one believes they are limited to this exact loop anymore’, it’s only fair that he goes swimming as well.  
\---


	5. Chapter 5

Quentin asks if he can drive on the way back to Marina 23’s old place just as the sun goes down, and broken moon creeps nearer. Penny, very reluctantly, lets him. They almost get into one of their old skirmishes, considering Q slapped Penny in the face earlier. “Fine,” Penny says, “I get it, man. You can drive. But if you wreck this car, you will end up in the library as my loyal assistant for eternity. Do you understand?” All three men are a little scared after that, to be honest, but they enjoy the drive anyway. Eliot doesn’t exactly care about cars, not like his stupid brothers did, but this one is fabulous, and God does Q look good driving it. It’s as if he’s thrilled by everything, which, to El, makes everything “hot as hell.”

They don’t want to fight anymore, so they leave the radio on Zelda’s Classic Playlist. At one point, Q and Eliot both sing along to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

At first, Penny rolls his eyes so far back into his head, they could get magically stuck that way. He’d never tell anyone he sang with these two without being forced, but he’s not quite who he used to be, and who doesn’t love… Marvin Gaye? 

During several songs, Eliot can’t help but think of his mom, again. Yes, it hurts, again. But it doesn’t hurt quite so bad with Quentin singing, mostly incorrectly, beside him. His moms name was Sarah and she loved to sing every old ass mellow song in existence as far as Eliot knew. Especially James Fucking Taylor, whom Taylor Fucking Swift was named for, which is THE ONLY fact Eliot somehow knows about Taylor Swift.

“Wait a minute,” he thinks, “How the fuck do I know anything about Taylor Swift?” He looks at Q, mumbling and humming with a huge, beautiful grin on his face, and thinks he might know the answer  
.  
Somehow, Eliot’s mom’s songs all seem to be on Zelda’s playlist right now, the less painful ones anyway, like “Uncle James’” version of “How Sweet it is to be Loved by You.” Quentin likes that one. He catches on quick and plays it again, just once, but he could stand more. Right now, the words don’t haunt Eliot. They… fill him. 

“Everywhere I went it seems I’d been there before/ But you brighten up for me all of my days…”

“Yep,” says El, smiling to himself and turning for a quick kiss. It’s comical, the Eliot the Spectacular with his usually dignified face turned sideways, begging for a kiss he knows he’ll get from Quentin the Awkwardly Beautiful, as Q attempts to drive a classic car. 

Fortunately, there’s none of the 90’s country stuff Eliot’s mom liked on the playlist. He would die of embarrassment if anyone, especially Quentin, his brand new…boyfriend? Ex-husband?... knew he knew that shit. Q would not think his stupid tractor was sexy…if he still had one…he doesn’t think. 

Currently, Q just cannot believe Eliot knows all the words to everything, without any magic. And he can sing! Damn, he has good luck with men. At least now that they have another chance. Thank whatever gods and kings are good enough to allow that! Or just Zelda. Sometimes gods and kings aren’t quite as powerful as women with books. Quentin feels whatever you call that feeling when something hurt so much for so long, but it doesn’t have to hurt anymore. There should be a specific word for it. 

40 hasn’t heard all the songs on the playlist, at least not for a long time, but he thinks Zelda has some decent taste…maybe…sometimes. He just prays the idiots don’t crash her car and end the whole thing right here. Before he’s even looked at Kady.

For different reasons, they’re all nervous about what and who awaits them at the penthouse, and the music provides a welcome distraction. 

Also, when you’re about to get hit by moon chunks, you do appreciate the little things in life, and taking the long way home, no matter how many times it’s happened before.   
\---

“Women are scary,” Q grumbles in the doorway. “What the fuck? What am I going to say? What if she kills me? I guess I cheated on her again. I totally cheated on her again! YOU with your face and eyes and hands! Seriously, dude, how are you even real? What did you think I was straight for? I am so not. What straight guy do you know who kisses his male friend on the mouth multiple times, screws him and keeps thinking about his damn jaw? But Alice. I love her. God, I loved her. So pretty. So powerful. God, I’m going to die again. I DESERVE to die again, don’t I?”

“No Q, honey,” says Eliot, earnestly, “you don’t.” His whole soul aches with guilt and love. As usual everything he doesn’t say shows on his face. “You’re just bi. It’s ok. You said you talked to Alice that night. She knows we love each other. Alice told me that you loved me. And I was an entire ass, and I was gone, and you were gone, and everybody loved each other, and nobody deserved any of it, least of all you. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Do you know I’ve never called a man fucking “sweetheart” before you came back? And thank you, for saving me.” Eliot strokes Quentin’s check, holding him close for a few seconds and then kissing him desperately. Again, neither of them gives a shit if mere kissing bothers 40, and it doesn’t at this point.

“How about we stop talking like anybody ever gets what the hell they supposedly deserve at all and open the door so the brilliant women can help us fix the moon, yeah?,” Penny suggests , with a mix of old and new, living human and librarian, attitude.

“Well, also there’s Josh, and uh, you from another timeline,” Eliot adds helpfully, “23 to be exact.”

“I know,” says Penny 40, “the timelines are all mixed up anyway. 23’s mom apparently ended up here too, when she felt that he had left. There’s going to have to be room for the both of us… for now.” 

Q closes his eyes for 30 seconds. He’s trying to gather his courage, to calm the true dread of causing Alice pain—and of loving her too much. 

Quentin doesn’t really believe women are (particularly) scary and Alice is going to kill him. She would never do that. Not now. His words just illustrate how awful he feels. 

He takes one last deep breath and says, “OK. Let’s do it.” 

So that’s how it comes to pass that for the second time since 10 am that morning, Eliot Waugh goes down in history as the man who finally opened a door. It is 7:07 pm.  
\---   
At 6:59, Margo witnesses the whole scene from her weird magic throne of a window seat. She’s so comfortable there that she hardly ever wants to leave. “Oh, look,” she says to herself, grinning mischievously, “That must be the other Penny, the one I forgot to bang.” She briefly wonders briefly how this a whole different view than before, but shrugs, smiling again. Weird rooms don’t matter in scheme of things. Margo is genuinely happy to see her friends. It really feels like Christmas now, and the fun kind. Just as Q and Eliot embrace, she gets up, runs to the living room, and excitedly yells “Hey, the stupid boys are back. Kady, they brought an Extra Hot Penny!” 

Kady, who is still busy running through the steps of massive reverse entropy with Julia, doesn’t know what that means. “What the fuck are you talking about, Margo?”  
Margo is so excited she almost giggles—almost. “Well, go to the front door and look, go on!” She doesn’t always enjoy romance, but she still loves gossip.   
\---  
At exactly 7:07, Julia drops what she’s doing, runs to the opening door, and attack hugs this Quentin, her Q, before anyone can say anything. She knocks the wind out of him but he’s breathing and he’s so glad. He is so glad that the angel protecting his future, the witch to his fool, his oldest friend, is still with him. After all the tragedy and fear and loss, they still have more chapters to write. Maybe soon, they can rest and hang out a while. 

“How’ve you been doing, Jules?” He asks after holding her a minute, telling her he loves the hell out of her, and briefly examining her face and hair. He sees something a little different about her, but he can’t tell what it is.

“Yeah, pretty shitty since you left me., asshole,” she says, punching his shoulder and laughing through her tears, “What took you so long, huh? Heroes aren’t supposed to stay dead that damn long.”

That feeling Q felt before, where the heaviest, most hopeless pain doesn’t hurt anymore?—Julia feels that now.

Quentin shrugs, smiling a little sadly, “Don’t you know I wasn’t the goddam hero anyway? The hero’s usually a woman around here. Pay attention!” 

“He’s right,” says Alice, stepping up to him, taking her turn. Q can see that tears already stream down her checks and her voice seems filled with just about every emotion. “But you’re also right, he’s a huge asshole.” Quentin isn’t sure how she knows what he’s been up to with Eliot, but she most certainly knows. He can see the instinctive reproach and hurt all over her face. Again. 

Jules, ivy league, brilliant hedge witch goddess that she is, takes this as her cue to go as far across the room as possible. Obviously, this means catching up with, mildly drinking with, and playfully congratulating El in the corner. They both grin until their faces are numb. At one point, Julia squeals like a teenager, which Eliot never imagined possible. He deeply appreciates her company in this time of great fucking awkwardness. The bond of shared love between them is already strangely strong and feels even stronger right now, with her support of his growing romance with Q.  
\---


	6. Chapter 6

“Alice. Hey, Alice. God, it’s so good to see you, Vix.” Q says sincerely.

They’ve gone into the room where Alice does or doesn’t sleep, away from everyone. He’s had a few moments of awkward silence, time to feel everything but think nothing except those words—no matter how stupid they sound.

In the same amount of time, Alice has briefly considered slapping Quentin’s face for the sight of those idiotic boxers on the floor. But the truth is she’d tried that before and it hadn’t helped.

Instead, she lets the little shade girl and the silly fox puppy inside her take over, going for a real, solid, unrestrained hug. She even sort of nuzzles at his neck a little. No kissing though. She knows neither of them could handle that. Q feels joyous surprise and a tiny bit of terror as he returns her embrace. They both can’t help but laugh. “I missed you so damn much, Quentin.” Alice says, her hot tears falling onto his sweatshirt, which still feels fresh out of the dryer somehow. “Me, too, Vix. Me, too.” Quentin tells his first true love.

He keeps holding her, not ready to let go or stop calling her that. Not that it really matters now, but Q had told Alice yet another secret at the trials, trying to get the damn ropes off. He had in fact been “mostly” a virgin when he arrived at Brakebills. He had always felt awkward about sex before then and he had wanted love first. Lucky for him, they eventually found it. “I met you as a 12-year-old, you know,” Alice offers after a minute. She pulls back and looks at him, daring, perhaps foolishly, to hold his face in her hands...just for second.

He has that smile, that look on his face, that always made her see the 12-year-old in him. Stupid face. “You were fucking adorable,” she says. Q tears up now. He has no fear of letting these tears fall and they make his words come slowly. “Yeah, so were you, always. I love you, so much, OK? No matter what. About…Eliot…I’m so sorry. I... I didn’t know… that he—" Quentin’s voice drops off completely, as if he can’t handle anymore feelings today. They pause for a moment. She takes his hand and they sit down on the bed together.

  
“Loved you back?” Alice finishes sadly, “I know. I probably could’ve told you then, but I didn’t want to. I knew I had my own life to live, too. In that moment, though, I just wanted you. I felt flooded with memories, feelings, and hope. It was honesty one of the greatest moments in my life. I’d never regret it and I know you wouldn’t either, right?” “Of course not,” Quentin assures her He smiles and starts to blush, but quickly looks away so he doesn’t kiss her this time.

Alice goes on. “I felt that amazing innocence we had around each other in the beginning, but that was so long ago, Quentin! I’ve had a lot of time to think about this, even though I probably shouldn’t have. I’ve thought about it all day and ever since Eliot told me about your mosaic. I still need you in my life, but we always hurt each other somehow. We don’t have to do that anymore, Q. I think we should always be good friends who love each other." Quentin grins and for Alice it’s like natural, beautiful lights. The northern lights maybe. She’s seen those a few times now. This boy has always been his own kind of strange, beautiful magic. So has Alice herself. “You mean like…fox friends?” Q asks. He means for it to be half suggestive, but it comes out all goofy.

  
Alice busts out laughing. “Yes...no…whatever…deal,” she says, bumping her shoulder against his. Come on, we’ve got work to do, I’m sure.”  
“Oh, yeah, that doesn’t work out. Apparently, we’re in a time loop of the same day over and over because of whales. But you can help us fix it.”

\---

At 7:08, Kady pushes past Q and Julia to where Penny is waiting outside. Before they had left the Neitherlands, Zelda had warned him that the two Pennies would have mild, annoying allergic reactions to one another, but after almost two years of timeline matter coexisting, that was about it. “Are you fucking serious right now?” Penny had said, “I’ve stayed in the library this long avoiding allergies?”

“No, no. it wasn’t time yet.” Zelda reminded him, “You know that as well as I do. The seeds from the dandelion Penny 23 brought needed time to grow, spread and acclimate. He and Marina 23 needed to make their paths, and since she so rudely broke the moon, it’s only natural for you to come back to your own timeline and help fix her mess. Penny 23 has unique value, particularly as a father, but he took way too many meth muffins to ever do anything about the moon! And Quentin… well… he still has his own destiny… which sometimes involves distracting Eliot. Hence, your more than vital role continues. Now I can’t tell you everything, just as I don’t know everything that happens to me, but I will be able to send you psychic signals every now and again, to keep you on track. They’ll all need the wisdom you’ve gained as a librarian, in addition to your friendship… and love.

Right now, as Penny stares into Kady’s eyes, wearing their fiercest look, like she’s just seconds away from punching him, it’s the love part he isn’t sure about.

\---

  
“So, what timeline are you from?” she demands. “And what do you want?” --- “Easy enough test,” Penny says, almost appearing casual, but even he can’t pull it off right now. He can’t help but be just a little terrified of Kady, ever since he most certainly did read her thoughts on the day they met. It’s part of what he loves about her though. She’ll always be a badass, whether she’s trying or not. “Number 1, I’m from 40, here. This is my mess and I belong to you. Number 2, I want you, alive, with me. I didn’t know I had a chance before, Kady, and I didn’t until now and I’m so sorry. I. LOVE. YOU. IN EVERY UNIVERSE. Any other bozo walking around here with my name and face isn’t me. You know me.”

Here Penny gets the impulse to kneel, because it’s the only thing he hasn’t tried in situations where Kady is pissed at him. But he doesn’t kneel, not now. He steps slowly closer to her, seductively.  
Kady has spent way too many painful moments with 23. She can tell this Penny is hers by his tone of voice, the look in his eyes, his movements, everything now, but she isn’t about to let him know yet.

“Oh yeah, prove it,” she says.

“Every day, every hour I have nothing but books, death, chaos, and more books. So many books, Kady. I love books and helping people now because if I didn’t learn I would’ve lost my damn mind, OK? You know, I know you do, my favorite book is yours. I know you kept the puppy at your old place where we lived, and you call him 42. I know you used to think about me and love me and hate my ass all the time. But now you don’t as much because you don’t need me anymore. But I still want you.”

Kady’s done. She smiles brilliantly and they both laugh at the dumb line. “So, we’re old saps now?”

“Oh no, never in a million years."

She lets him have it now, kissing him with as much force as any punch, only even more fun.

If anyone knows how to kiss like an apocalypse doesn’t matter, it’s Kady Orloff Diaz and Penny Adiyodi of timeline 40

After a few minutes, Margo, Josh, Julia, and Alice come out to greet 40 and tease the couple. Part of Alice is apparently still a puppy or a shade girl because she kind of jumps into the proper Penny’s arms and giggles a little. It completely shocks him, but he loves it.

Kady just shakes her head and laughs.

Margo sees this and kisses Penny on the lips for fun. “Well, OK then,” he says, smiling, “Good to see you, too.”

It’s obvious from her face that Kady likes this a little less, but Josh whispers, “I think it’s all good, don’t worry.”

They all go inside to discuss the new plan. And see how the Pennies react to each other in this dimension.


	7. Chapter 7

Margo Elisabeth Hanson, former and forever high king, cannot believe how fucking happy she is to see Quentin Theodore Coldwater alive and in front of face, holding her Eliot’s hand. OK maybe she can. Maybe she’s s had dreams about it. Maybe she’s been up some nights making wishes to her old genie friend and trying to think of ways to Endgame his ass back here. Maybe, just maybe, she’s already contemplating several approaches to a killer best man outfit and imagining her life as the world’s most fabulous aunt. Maybe that’s why her eyes are leaking the tiniest bit of moisture right now, but she would never let them know it, not yet.

Also, if she looks at Q long enough, he really is that cute, sort of like Josh. Except Quentin isn’t a kick ass werewolf chef, he doesn’t have the moves, or the music taste. Mostly he doesn’t look at her the way Josh does, no matter what she’s done (and even though he slept with Fen.) 

No, that’s the way Q has always looked at El, but she’s never noticed until just now.

“Well, if isn’t his royal highness back from the dead, fucking finally.”

“Hey, Margo,” Q says simply, with a big, natural smile. “Missed you, too.” 

He goes in to hug her and she holds on tighter than any of them would’ve imagined, at least since that night the three of them literally fell in bed together laughing. And now, at the time she considers most inappropriate and unexpected, Margo’s tears start flowing. It feels like every moment she’s wanted to rage at the universe, every narrowly avoided heartbreak, every tear she’s ever thought about since the moment she laid eyes on The Monster inside Eliot, demands to be dumped on to Quentin Coldwater right this minute in Marina 23’s old kitchen. Its 7:50 now. They are supposed to be getting everyone drinks for the brainstorming session while 40 starts explaining about the whales, the time loop, and his and Q’s mission to help.

Margo doesn’t know what to do, and it doesn’t even occur to Quentin to move right now, so she just keeps holding him. He rubs her back as she sobs, telling her “It’s OK. It’s all right, Margo. Everything’s gonna be all right soon, I promise. El and I, we’re right here, see. We’re fine! We all love you.”

By this time, a slightly shocked Eliot has started rubbing Margo’s back as well, saying “Bambi?! Oh, Bambi. Shhh. I’m so sorry, love.” 

Soon enough, a sniffling, eye watering 40 informs Josh that Margo is crying, and he comes running for her, regardless of the current state of their relationship.

“Look, Bambi,” says Eliot, “There’s Josh! You like Josh, don’t you? Come to think of it, so do I! I completely fucking love Josh Hoberman. Josh told me to open to the freaky door with you behind it, Q, in my last time loop. So, this morning, I opened it and you kissed me. A lot. He looks a little taller lately, right? “

“Oh, absolutely,” says Q, looking Josh over, as if seeing him for the first time. “So handsome. Love that dude!”

Josh doesn’t remember the conversation, but he’s excited to have helped so much, and in a time loop, no less. “Why, thank you, fine gentlemen,” he says, smiling his most genuine, charming smile.

Margo takes a deep, ragged breath and laughs. “I also fucking love Josh Hoberman and Eliot Waugh, and Quentin Coldwater, apparently.” 

Josh tries to get in on the hugging, and for once, no one hesitates. They just move over and let him in so that he’s in the center now and all their arms are around him. 

Josh Hoberman has been waiting for this moment his whole life. He truly belongs to his own found family. An unbelievably bad ass leading loves him. He is finally at the center of his own story and all his friends are happy. As least as happy as they can be during a lunar apocalypse.

“So, how about a foursome?” Josh suggests, mostly trying to joke. 

“NO!” Margo, Q, and Eliot yell together, immediately breaking up. 

“Private reunion banging is much better,” Margo adds, with a solid kiss on her Josh’s check  
\---  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is close to the end of what I currently have, so if anyone is reading this far let me know!! CHRITICISM IS WELCOME AS WELL! THANK YOU!! I posted too much for this chapter at first, but this is how I would like it to be read it the future, just Q and Margo, EL and slightly taller Josh who gave him his love back. Let it be very well known that LOVE. FEN AND MARGO TOGETHER. I just also love josh a little bit also,


	8. Chapter 8

Its 8:45 and all the magicians are gathered in the living room, brainstorming. Everyone who can stand it has a beautiful, flirty cocktail tailored to their individual needs. The rest just have ice cold wine or beer (or soda) in a mug that Eliot magically frosted. In a couple of minutes, they should have Josh’s pizza, which he made again by Margo’s request. He did not sneeze on it and ruin it’s perfection this evening /

Q had wanted to make witches hat cookies he remembered from childhood, but there was only one oven, so he ended up just standing there flirting and helping. Eliot had deeply appreciated this, along with simple, artistic task of head magician bar tender. 

“So, whales really are powerful magicians,” Alice interjects—once Penny finishes talking, they’ve found all the right books and they’ve made a toast to new, apocalyptic life.

“Yes, ma’am,” says Penny 40, in pleasant, respectful tone, pausing to wipe his nose. They’re also rude, annoying fuckers… GODS … Damn…Allergies. What … else do you know about them? He sneezes, followed closely by 23. Everyone stares at 23 expectantly.

“Oh, fuck all of you, fine. I’m taking that car though, man.”

“Knock yourself out,” says 40, tossing Zelda’s keys, “But be careful!”

“Yes, Dad,” 23 retorts, rolling his eyes and leaving. 

Kady and Julia look at each other and giggle. It’s doubtful either penny will ever hear the end of that.

Penny 40 just stands there for a second, confused. He’s not sure whether to be flattered, offended, or extremely creeped out. He may be experiencing all three emotions at once. Margo and Alice start giggling, too, and then the boys can’t help chuckling. 40 continues, smiling a little, happy to hear Kady and the others laugh so near him. 

“And I echo his sentiment. Fuck all of you. As I was saying… the whales, what do we know about them?” 

“I just read that their closest cousin is the hippo and their mating season is in the fall,” Alice offers

“Awesome,” says Penny, “one of the major things I learned as a librarian is never to discount any single moment, any piece of information, or any one person, no matter who they are. You never know when you might find a solution or a key to the rest of the story, right?” 

“Right,” says Margo, “Go team, but why don’t we just kill all the damn whales?”

“Dang it, Margo, you already tried that!” Q says, “What’s wrong with you? Haven’t you ever seen the Free Willy movies? My dad showed me those. Whales are just like us with their whale feelings and whale friends and whale families! Oh gods, if the world ends now, that means the whales will never get to have sex, ever again. not even one last time. That’s so sad.”

Poor Eliot is almost beside himself with love and hilarity. He can’t decide whether to keep stroking Quentin’s hair, bite his ear and kiss him senseless, or fall off the damn couch laughing about sad Free Willy. He doesn’t fall but he does whisper something—and decide that two idiots tangled up together laughing is its own contribution to this flawed, perpetually ending world.

Penny shakes his head and hides a chuckle. Kady and Julia start to giggle again, as they should. 

Margo randomly kisses Josh with all her best skills.  
“  
Ok, are the two of you planning on doing anything besides each other?” Alice scolds the boys, looking like unintentional daggers might come flying out of her eyes any second. “Because your whale friends don’t seem too concerned with human rights, do they?”

Quentin and Eliot hush, separate and sit up straight immediately, like 3rd graders called out by a particularly beloved teacher. Q feels a stab of simple nostalgia when he looks at Alice. He says nothing, but suddenly he’s more afraid of losing them all than he was the first time.  
\---

At first, Quentin had spent most of his time in the underworld bowling strikes. When that got boring, he started reading new science fiction or fantasy stories he had ignored in life. Sometimes he’d get lost in a love story, carried away by what he imagined were cute guys, or girls, or both.  
Once he’d been delighted to find good night moon and the Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh and good night moon stuck in at the edge of a random shelf. 

When he read, on a comfy little red sofa he found in the fantasy section, he could’ve sworn he almost found the peace Penny had clearly wanted for him. He loved that sofa. It seemed like the only thing in the whole underworld, library that had any color to it—besides the books themselves and the worlds inside them. The problem was that none of these new stories were like Fillory. None of them were his story. 

Q would do anything just to keep all his loved ones breathing, to see them smiling, to never go back to a world without them. When he died, he had known how much they loved him, and been glad to see them living on, but it never felt like enough. He couldn’t reach them or ease their pain. He was supposed to fix things, but death wouldn’t let him. It would not allow him to fulfill his true purpose or to love anyone back.

\---  
“EXACTLY!” Margo shouts at Alice, effectively jolting Quentin out of his thoughts. The obsessive competitor (and Alice Quinn lover) in her jumps up for high five. Eliot had put Lorain Bumble Wine, whipped cream, gummy bears, and something with tiny, delicious silver bubbles in Alice’s cocktail, so she just smiles, takes another sip, and goes with it. 

“That’s just lovely,” says Julia, “but the last time any of us was team ‘kill them all’ it never went well, did it?”

Kady jumps in to control the potential chaos, “Ok… is there any info on the Kraken that could point us in a direction?” 

“Excellent. Thought. Kady.” Penny 40 crows. I did not come here for a giant squid to eat my face or yours. So that’s one thing, Zelda says from the books she’s read so far, it’s supposed to look like a giant ass squid.”

“Of course. We haven’t had one of those yet,” Jules says dryly, wondering momentarily where 23 went in his exile. It is a wicked cool car, and he probably looks good in it, but saving the world and their lives takes priority.

“Zelda also said ‘listen to the lunatics,’ whatever the fuck that means.” says 40  
\---

A few minutes later, Josh finally shows up with the pizza, having had some minor slowdowns earlier with Margo kissing and trying to seduce him. Everyone jumps up and crowds around him to get a slice.

“Good pizza, dude. Thanks!” says Q, with his mouth full. “

God, I really missed pizza. You would think they’d have it in the bowling alley, but no, just cupcakes. And chips’ and candy bars—like from vending machines. I ate a lot of Reses and those mini Oreo packs.” Alice wonders why this is, but also whether he had missed pizza more than her. “So… um…. what about the Kraken?” she says, exasperated, exhausted, and more drunk than she would admit. “Should we just let it eat us?”

“That’s a great idea, Alice,” says Eliot, smiling. He can barely contain himself because somehow, he’s found Q and the answer. Quentin instinctually grabs Eliot’s arm, looking at him like an inquisitive puppy. Alice looks like she could flatten them both again—stupid boys. Quentin had loved her deeply and honestly, she knew that. But at the same time, these boys had always been in love with each other.

“We just need to let out the thing that scares us," Eliot starts,"'—we need to—"

Release the Kraken!” Josh yells happily. This receives some minor side-eye and a tiny smirk from Margo. Once again, she cannot believe she is with him, or that she’s seen Clash of the Titans, but he’s all right with her.  
“Yes,” says Eliot, with all the sincere feeling he possesses, “Thank you, Josh!


	9. Chapter 9

Penny 40 looks at the fancy watch Zelda gave him when he left. She said it was a present for his service and kissed him on the check. He thought he saw tears in her eyes. It’s 9:45 now. “Shit,” Penny says soberly, “We’re almost out of time. Does everybody know the new plan? Because remember, once Quentin and I get moon brain, this could be our last chance to live.”

“And save, you know, the entire world,” says Julia.

Everyone gets up and holds hands, subconsciously making sure they are next to the ones they need the most right now. 

Penny looks at Kady and grins, “Yeah, that, too.”

Eliot wishes he had an extra hand for Margo, but he somehow gives one to Q and the other…to Alice

.So, Margo takes Alice’s other hand. She really does want to be her friend, she always did, when Alice wasn’t a complete psychopath

Josh stands on Margo’s other side and doesn’t at all mind making a circle with 40. Julia is perfectly content with her two best bitches by her side. Her heart is full and mostly healed…for now. She knows they can do this together, and she has feeling there are more quests waiting for her.

So, the world ends with Penny 40, Kady, Julia, Quentin, Eliot, Alice, Margo, and Josh all holding on to each other with mostly serious expressions but a few deadly infectious smiles No one is missing. No one is left out. No one is forgotten. Except maybe 23 with Zelda’s car. 

\---  
Josh’s 10 am pizza bell dings.

Quentin, Eliot, and Alice have a weird sensation of falling on the living room floor together, hands still linked.

“Well, fuck,” says Q, “This is awkward.” 

Alice jumps up immediately to find Julia, who got disconnected from Q and ended up back at the table, as she had been the first morning. 

“Hey, losers,” Margo says happily, lying on El’s other side and kissing his cheek. “Feelin’ the right kind o‘ boned right now?”

Eliot laughs and cups her face with his free hand, hope spilling out of him, along with leftover joy and pure relief. Yes, he is living in the same 12 hours, yet again, but he’s not alone anymore. The two people he loves most in this timeline are there beside him, and here Eliot is in the middle again. 

What more could he possibly want? And then…for some goddamn ridiculous reason, Eliot’s family crosses his mind. He doesn’t even know if he has nephews or nieces. Some kid in the middle of Indiana might need him right now 

Q doesn’t get Margo’s joke, because he wasn’t in the previous time loops. “No,” he says nervously, “no boning, world saving, remember? 

“Yes, sweetheart, “says Eliot, using the word for the fourth time in this life. “We remember.” He grins at Margo, who rolls her eyes and gets up. El kisses Q’s hand in his, then his forehead, and then his sweet, smiling mouth, just once. Eliot smiles himself. His smile is lazy, and true and more real anything Q has ever seen before on earth. Looking at that smile makes Q feel like they are just waking up on any other Sunday morning. For a split second he reconsiders the boning idea.

But then Eliot gets up, too, leaving Quentin alone for a moment. staring at the ceiling…thinking about…their son. 

\---  
Something had begun to shift in Alice’s brain when her old…friend…Penny said that Zelda had told him to listen to the lunatics. 

“Oh,” she had thought. “What if the moon really is a female, and not just some huge mass of rock floating in space? What if she does have feelings? What if she also doesn’t enjoy people pushing her around and fixing her and breaking her all the time?” 

Alice really knew how the moon felt in that case. Shouldn’t they talk to her first? Explain why all this was happening? Ask her consent like the kneecap woman had told them?” Alice didn’t really feel the need to be a kneecap or fall down to worship anything, but the moon was pretty powerful. Besides anyone with feelings deserved much more respect than they had first given her.

Alice had considered all of this silently for minute. 

Then she had sweetly asked Eliot for one more wonderful drink and asked Margo for another spray of that cool perfume, which Eliot told everyone to cover themselves with. That beautiful idiot had dumped it all over Quentin.  
Q complained 

“OK, El, OK ! I’m inhaling the stuff now! 

Such dramatic protesting soon became an all-out perfume fight with Quentin as the main target, and earned playful smothering from just about everyone. 

Except Alice, who wrote furiously in the corner about the moon and her magic.  
\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that I have, so, firstly, thanks to anyone who did get this far!! Secondly fixing the moon and other broken stuff is kind of hard, so any comments or desire to read anything more would encourage me a lot, I'M EVEN OPEN TO NEW THOUGHTS AND IDEAS!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING. YOU ARE AMAZING <3


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